Letters to the editor: 12/9

'Obamacare' is like the Soviet Union

"Obamacare" is reminiscent of the Soviet Union's "Dictatorship of the Proletariat" wherein edicts and commands emanate from above to the citizens below. Basically, as with the Soviet Union, Obamacare lacks pluralism. The present health care system pluralizes with doctors, nurses, hospitals, insurance companies, religious institutions and patients independently serving their own interests to maintain viability and sustainability.

The so-called uninsured are covered by Medicaid which, in some instances like transportation, offers more than private insurance. Yes, the present system needs improvement. However, the command and control approach by Obamacare unifies all groups into an omnibus hole financed by unfair taxes but subject to the bureaucratic values and agenda of those in control of government. Dictates are enforced by fines or by punishment of no health insurance. Those in control are self-serving, like any entity, and will benefit their own constituencies by extracting from those not in favor. Sensitivities such as mandated contraception and abortion are trivialized. Choice regarding personalized health insurance has been terminated to serve the interests of those in government.

America is a country where people came to live their own lives, to be free and make their own choices. Obamacare is simply un-American.

Art Nicholson

Staatsburg

ACA aids mental health insurance

The cost of health care is a tough proposition for most of us, but the cost of managing mental illness can be a more expensive adjunct. For some families, it is economically prohibitive - but is at times needed. Therefore, Americans should welcome and appreciate President Barack Obama's bold move to expand the clinical itinerary of the Affordable Care Act by adding mental health insurance.

Mental illness as a cause and effect is believed to play a significant role in gun violence. Though the common parlance of clinical professionals is the descriptive relationship of gun violence and the role of mental illness, the clinical cost is very seldom discussed. Affordability of mental health insurance is daunting for those of us having to work two jobs. You may not need this service today, and thank God that you may never need it, but mental illness is potentially lying in wait for all of us.

Packaging physical and mental health insurances will now provide coverage to the whole person. This insurance paradigm represents the general good of the whole. One would think that all Americans would pray and hope that the "Obamacare" website will be up and working soon. All families are potentially in need of health insurance (psychiatric/medical) and should communicate to their representatives - demanding that they support the Affordable Care Act.

Chuck Cooper

Hopewell Junction

ENDA misreads human rights

Since the U.S. Senate has voted to approve passage of an odious "rights" law known as Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), this is perhaps a good time to revisit and reconsider the whole conceptual framework of human rights.

Do those driven by same-sex attraction or gender confusion really have a point? Or is the LGBTQ paradigm the product of misinformed thinking?

In 1774, Thomas Jefferson wrote "A Summary View of the Rights of British America" about "A free people, claiming their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate" (http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch14s10.html).

Human rights then are based on morally neutral characteristics intrinsic to the human condition (read, our DNA) and are neither bestowed nor abrogated by government.

Since both homosexuality and transgenderism are extrinsic to human nature - behavioral adaptations resulting from subjective thinking - then ENDA is based on false values.

Forcing the American people to participate in ENDA so as to humor deluded people can only cause more harm than good to a civil society.

Besides, who, in their right mind, would want to allow a kindergarten teacher to enter a classroom in drag?

Linda Cebrian

Rhinebeck

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Letters to the editor: 12/9

'Obamacare' is reminiscent of the Soviet Union's 'Dictatorship of the Proletariat' wherein edicts and commands emanate from above to the citizens below. Basically, as with the Soviet Union, Obamacare